Ski binding with a toehold with a ski leash



Jan. 20, 1970 G. HATLAPA SKI BINDING WITH A TOEHOLD WITH A SKI LEASH Filed Jan 25, 1968 INVENTOR ROLF 60mm HATLAPA A110 NEY FIG.3

United States Patent Int. Cl. Al53c 9/10 US. Cl. 280-1135 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A ski binding with a toe hold and with a ski leash attachment thereto, in which one loop of the safety strip is positioned above the foot around one leg of the skier and which serves the purpose of preventing the escape of the ski from a skier when the ski binding has been opened either deliberately or involuntarily.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The invention is broadly defined under the definition of class 288, subclass 11.35. The ski binding comprises a ski leash, a toehold section including a toehold and a hollow front bracket, adjustable relative to the toehold, the ski leash having a toehold end for attachment into said hollow toehold portion and a foot looping end for winding as a loop around a ski boot; said hollow toe hold front portion and said toehold end of said leash having joint mating means of mutual attachment for their pivoting movements with respect to each other on release of the ski from the ski boot; said foot looping end of said ski leash having means to loop around the ski boot and means to detachably complete the loop; said joint means of attachment comprising means to control the length and tension of said leash, when looped around a ski boot, and means to detach controllably the toehold and the toehold end of the leash from each other. Optionally means are provided to secure the toehold immovably to the bracket. In the alternative, means are provided to rotate the toehold relative to the bracket to allow for toe movements of the boot in the horizontal plane. Optionally, means are provided to allow for adjustment of the toehold vertically to accommodate various thicknesses of a boot toe sole. The toehold is fixed or pivotable in the horizontal plane. The toehold bracket is fixedly attached to the ski in front of the toe hold. Specific means are provided for joining a toe hold, bracket and leash.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Safety straps or leashes which are attached to ski bindings are known in the art. The known safety strap attachments, however, have considerable disadvantages and drawbacks which lead to complicated ankle fractures particularly as a result of the frequently occurring forward falls, but also in case of twisting falls, due to the fact that, while the opening of a safety ski binding is assured or guarded against, there will not remain enough clearance for release of the foot, at the moment of danger, immediately after the opening of the ski binding.

These disadvantages arise particularly because, in the known arrangements, the safety or catching strap is connected with a means for keeping the heel down either directly or by way of a connecting cable, so that in case of an accident, the heel cannot be lifted off without hindrance. This holds true also if another ski bonding is utilized in which the attachment of the safety strap is provided behind the heel. In fact, this even increases the danger of an accident while the safety strap is connected.

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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention effectively eliminates the disadvantages and drawbacks of the arrangements of the prior art, but the feature of an easy manipulation is maintained. In addition thereto, the arrangementproposed by the present invention is simple and thus may be manufactured cheaply.

The present invention is directed to a ski binding of the type referred to hereinabove and is characterized in that the leash strap is secured to the front part of the ski binding in order to assure that, in case of forwarder twisting falls, the foot can be lifted off without obstacles.

Furthermore, the safety strap may be secured to a front bracket of the ski binding. According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the safety strap may be attached to the front portion of the ski binding in an adjustable and releasable manner.

The use of the arrangement proposed by the present invention not only reduces very considerably the danger of accidents and the direct consequence thereof, namely ankle fractures, but, by virtue of the afore-mentioned feature of the readily possible adjustability, also allows for an excellent adaptation to the various kinds of ski boots in a manner such that the free motion of the foot may be individually regulated in an optimum manner in the case of an accident after the opening of the binding. Additionally, the safety strap arrangement and provisions proposed by the present invention may be subsequently applied without difficulty to ski bindings equipped with a so-called heel tightener, as well as to bindings which instead of the heel tighteners have forwardly-operable tension means. The adjustability is made possible in the many ski bindings which are now available on the market, also without removing the ski binding from the ski. Thus, a simple adjustment is assured without recourse to special tools.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of the invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detail description when considered in connection with the accompanying rawings in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the several views thereof and wherein:

FIGURE 1 illustrates the attachment of a safety strap according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a partial lateral view, at an enlarged scale and partially in cross section, of a safety strap, as proposed by the present invention, to a ski binding;

FIGURE 3 is a partial top plan view of the attachment of the safety strap according to FIGURE 2, and

FIGURE 4 is a partial view according to FIGURE 2 of and adjustable and releasable or detachable attachment for the safety strap according to the present invention.

FIGURE 5 is a partial view according to FIGURE 2 of a modification of the invention.

FIGURE 6 is an exploded isometric view of a modified part of FIGURE 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In FIGURE 1 a ski is shown, and secured approximately to the central portion thereof is shown generally a ski binding 2 having a conventional heel tensioning attachment 9 of a ski boot 6. Toehold means 10, 7 and 4 anchor the toe of the boot and connect the boot with a leash 5 looped around the top of the boot or the leg of the skier. Means 20 to removably fasten the loop around the boot is provided. The ski boot 6 is held down forwardly by the toe hold which may also be divided, and

is tightened thereagainst by means of a cable 8 engaging in the heel groove of the ski boot 6 and being tightened, for example, ahead of the front jaw 7 and comprising a cable part 9 provided, for example, with closely adjacent coils, such as a spiral spring. The ski boot 6 is thus retained on the ski binding 2.

FIGURE 2 ShOWs details of the toe hold means. The toe hold 10 has an L-shaped cross section and extends with its horizontal portion over the projecting toe 11 of the ski boot 6. The toe hold is secured by a screw 12, to the front bracket 4 which has a slot 13 through which the leash may be inserted. The leash is shown by way of example only mounted within the front part of the bracket, folded over and riveted with the rivet 14 to secure the leash in position and to prevent that it be pulled out.

FIGURE 3 shows the attachment of the bracket by screws 15 which may serve either only for the attachment of the ski binding 2 to the ski 1, or at the same time also to fix the toe hold in position when the toe hold and the bracket have separate constructions.

FIGURE 4 is an illustration similar to that of FIG- URE 2. In this case, however, the bracket is provided with a wider slot 13 so that the leash may be taken out again. For this purpose, the leash is provided in a manner known, per se, in the longitudinal direction thereof, with bores 24 spaced with respect to each other, through which the rivet 14 is extended. The rivet 14 may be equipped with two spherically-shaped heads in order to facilitate, and therewith to accelerate, the adjustability. This adjustability is important for an adaptation, for example, to the different shaft widths of the ski boots 6 of skiers in order to establish therewith the clearance or free space for the respective foot of the skier in the desired size thereof during the opening of the ski binding 2. Optionally, the toehold end of the leash may be provided with tensioning or retracting means. The leash may be resilient. It may, for instance, be wound on a coiled spring, either attached to the toehold end of the leash or two the bracket 4 itself. In FIGURE 5, the spring 19 is attached to the toehold end of the leash. The spring 19 is urged by its tension to coil up within bracket 4 by coiling in the direction of arrow A. FIGURE 2 shows a means to reel and unreel attached to the bracket 4 from the end of the leash 5. This means may be such conventional reeling spring assemblies as shown in U.S. Patent No. 1,033,169, issued July 23, 1912, to W. P. Harthan for a Razor Strop, and U.S. Patent No. 1,057,543, issued Apr. 1, 1913, to D. F. Green for a Spring Driven Device. Other tensioning means known to the art will serve as equivalents. In order to accommodate the riveted end portion of the leash, or the retractable leash means, the bracket is developed hollow with sufiicient space to hold the leash end. When the ski boot is released from the ski while dangling on the leash still attached to the ski with one end and to the boot with the other end, at least a limited amount of movement is required to allow the skier handling of the ski. For this reason the hole in the bracket preferably should be of a width sufiicient to permit pivoting of the protruding end of the leash therethrough. When means to tension the leash are employed, the leash preferably is of a tape type and the hole has a slot cross-section to accommodate the tape to run freely. The means of assembly of the ski binding portion of the present invention are shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, when the toehold 10 is a separate member of the assembly. The leash may be inserted preferably already preassembled with a rivet, or the tensioning coil, by threading the boot end of the leash through the slot first. A nutted shaft 16 and 17 is screwed into the ski at a predetermined distance frontward from the position of the boot toe. If the toehold is to pivot on the shaft, the nutted portion of the shaft itself is supported pivotably on the screw portion 17 thereof which then represents the shaft around which the nut. pi o s.- This is shown in FIGURE he e nut 16 has been bored below to provide a bearing hole. This bearing hole is not driven into the threading of hole 22 of screw 12. Upper parts 17a of shaft 17 is connected fixedly to bracket 4 and nut 16, while lower part 17b fits the bearing hole in the lower side of nut 16. Lower part 17b is shown having a screw driven slot 23 and it is also provided with a spring means 26 which locks within the bearing hole, in order to provide pivoting around shaft axis 17 while at the same time keeping nut 16 connected to lower part 1712. After the shaft 17 is fixed on the ski, the bracket 4 is mounted with the toehold end of the leash already inserted by screws, such as shown at 15. In the pivoting-nut case, screws 15 are conventional spring bias adjusters and release on attainment of predetermined thrust to allow pivoting of the toehold 10. Thereafter the toehold member 10 itself is firmly attached to the nut 16 by a screw 12 and pivotably with the nut, if desired. The screw 12 is screwed through hole 18 in the vertical portion of the toehold 10 into nut 16. Differences in the thickness of the sole of the toe of the boot can be taken care of by screwing the screw 17 more or less into the ski. The loop end of the leash is provided with means of attachment to its length at likely points of need. The nut and screw asembly 1'6 and 17 also may function as a controllable spacing means between the ski and the bracket to adjust the size of the cavity of the bracket. Thus, the pivotable nut portion 16 may itself include a nutted sleeve which may be adjusted on a threaded shaft 17.

While the toehold and bracket are shown as two units, a single member combining toehold 10 and bracket also form an embodiment of the invention. While the slots for the leash are shown positioned in the center of the bracket, it is within the scope of the invention to position them on the sides of brackets, preferably on the free outsides of the ski pair. While the actual dimensions of the present ski binding naturally vary with the sizes of boots and skis, they are drawn approximately to scale.

What is claimed is:

1. A ski-binding with a toehold with a ski leash attachment comprising: a toehold section having a hollow front portion and a rear toehold portion adjacent the toe of the ski boot, said hollow front portion having a slot upwards therethrough for the toehold end of a ski leash; a ski leash having its toehold end provided with means to anchor within the cavity of said hollow front portion; the cross-section of said slot being slightly larger than the cross-section of said leash; means to attach said toehold section integrally to a ski; said ski leash having its boot end provided with looping means around a ski boot and leg and with means to releasably fasten the leash.

2. A ski binding in accordance with claim 1, said toehold section having said hollow front portion developed as a separate bracket and said toehold portion as a separate toehold.

3. A ski binding in accordance with claim 2, further comprising a vertical shaft with means to attach it to the ski, said shaft having an upper nut portion, said toehold having an L-shaped cross section with the vertical portion thereof provided with a hole and a screw screwed through said hole of said toehold into said nut of said shaft into a fixed integral assembly of toehold and bracket.

4. A ski binding as claimed in claim 3, said vertical shaft having means to adjust the height of its nut relative to the ski.

5. A ski binding as claimed in claim 4, said nut pivotable along the vertical axis of said shaft together with said toehold in attachment therewith.

6. A ski binding in accordance with claim 1, said means to anchor said leash comprising means to reel and unreel said leash under tension.

7. A ski binding in accordance with claim 6, said means to reel and unreel being attached t1 the toehold end portiQn of said leash.

8. A ski binding as claimed in claim 6, said means to reel and unreel being a portion of said hollow front portion.

9. A ski binding as claimed in claim 1, and means to controllably remove said leash from said toehold section.

10. A ski binding as claimed in claim 1 and means to removably fasten the loop around the boot.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,153,809 4/1939 Meis 2801l.35 2,259,701 10/1941 Legros 280-1135 1/1959 Rehackek 28011.35 2/1962 Landry 28011.35 8/1965 Marker 280-1135 1/1966 Miller 280 11.35

FOREIGN PATENTS 3/ 1939 Switzerland.

LEO FRIAGLIA, Primary Examiner MILTON L. SMITH, Assistant Examiner 

